-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- The draft for the first edition of International Premier Tennis League -LRB- IPTL -RRB- Sunday has attracted the top ranked players in the men 's and women 's game , Rafael Nadal and Serena Williams .

Teams based in Mumbai , Bangkok , Singapore and Dubai will contest the event from November 27-December 14 later this year with 24 matches taking place across the four host cities .

Spain 's Nadal was picked for Mumbai , who also include 14-time grand slam legend Pete Sampras , while his WTA Tour counterpart Williams is in the Singapore line-up .

Novak Djokovic will feature for Dubai , with Wimbledon champion Andy Murray representing Bangkok .

The event is the brainchild of Indian doubles star Mahesh Bhupathi and the concept is modeled on cricket 's Indian Premier League .

A total sum of $ 23,975,000 was spent across the four teams , with Bhupathi delighted to have attracted a clutch of current and former champions .

`` We 've got some unbelievably strong teams . I think out of the 28 players that got drafted we have about 21 Grand Slam champions . We have 14 present and past number ones . It 's a pretty blockbuster field , '' Bhupathi said .

The dates are during the off-season for both the ATP and WTA Tour , but there are some notable absentees with both Roger Federer and Maria Sharapova sitting it out .

Australian Open champion Li Na is also missing despite her popularity in Asia and her male counterpart Stanislas Wawrinka has joined fellow Swiss star Federer on the sidelines .

The matches will be in best-of-five format with single set contests in men 's singles , women 's singles , men 's doubles , mixed doubles and past champions singles .

The schedule will see matches in Singapore , followed by Bangkok and Mumbai with the finale in Dubai .

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International Premier Tennis League -LRB- IPTL -RRB- holds first draft

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Rafael Nadal , Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams to take part

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Four teams based in cities in Asia

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Roger Federer a notable absentee for Nov 27-Dec 14 event